I had all the kids switch over to TUMBLR for the year, so please visit my new tech blog at http://mongoliamel.tumblr.com.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Family Wall Red Christmas Card
Visit Shutterfly.com for classic photo Christmas cards.
View the entire collection of cards.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Problems in my city
Following is a list of problems that my grade 6 technology students came up with for the final project in their typing unit. They will be writing a formal letter to the president of Mongolia suggesting solutions to one of these problems.
- traffic - road safety
- pollution
- litter
- human trafficking
- poverty
- alcoholism
- lack of jobs (unemployment)
- child labor
- lack of good medical facilities - and not enough hospitals
- old educational system
- old railroad
- no roads in the countryside
- corruption
- unequal treatment between women and men
- safety - robbery, assault
- cheating of foreign buyers
- underdeveloped roads
- old power plants
- low daily income
- spitting
- dogs
- electricity
- icy roads
- open manhole covers
- ger districts
- not enough emergency aid
- broken bridges
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Understanding the Role of a MUN Program Advisor
by Ben Wagor
Model United Nations (MUN) is one of the fasting growing and most popular programs in the international school community. It provides students with skills in leadership, consensus building, debate, conflict resolutions, research and writing, as well as critical thinking and analytical reasoning. The program is focused around students representing delegates of United nations countries and debating current world problems and finding solutions. Ben feels that by providing teachers the opportunity to advise this program they are providing students around the world more access to MUN.
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
Unfortunately, there is no professional development available for MUN. It's mainly on-the-job training or mentoring. In Ben's school it's been opened up to 7th and 8th grade. This leads to more experienced and confident kids in a very competitive international activity. Ben doesn't say no to any student, but he also doesn't say no if they want to quit. If they aren't ready, they may want to try again next year.
With kids you can start with a trivia powerpoint to find out who knows about the history of the UN. This will give you a clue as to who already has an interest. For example:
To teach kids parliamentary procedure, one can practice debate on any subject with the teacher acting as the chair with the rules projected up on a screen at the front of the room.
What is MUN?
It's a program for students run by students. Peer to peer knowledge transfer is essential to a successful program. We leave schools, and if there's no institutional knowledge, then the program dies. In Ben's school, high school kids train the middle school kids. An after school current events program supports MUN.
What will MUN do for students?
It provides them with the ability to utilize and improve the following skills:
What kind of students join MUN?
Students who are:
MUN allows students to:
What is the advisor's role?
Model United Nations (MUN) is one of the fasting growing and most popular programs in the international school community. It provides students with skills in leadership, consensus building, debate, conflict resolutions, research and writing, as well as critical thinking and analytical reasoning. The program is focused around students representing delegates of United nations countries and debating current world problems and finding solutions. Ben feels that by providing teachers the opportunity to advise this program they are providing students around the world more access to MUN.
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
Unfortunately, there is no professional development available for MUN. It's mainly on-the-job training or mentoring. In Ben's school it's been opened up to 7th and 8th grade. This leads to more experienced and confident kids in a very competitive international activity. Ben doesn't say no to any student, but he also doesn't say no if they want to quit. If they aren't ready, they may want to try again next year.
With kids you can start with a trivia powerpoint to find out who knows about the history of the UN. This will give you a clue as to who already has an interest. For example:
- When was the UN started? 1945
- Who were the first five members? (winners of WWII)
- How many principal organs are there in the UN? (6)
- What previous version of the UN existed? (League of Nations)
To teach kids parliamentary procedure, one can practice debate on any subject with the teacher acting as the chair with the rules projected up on a screen at the front of the room.
What is MUN?
It's a program for students run by students. Peer to peer knowledge transfer is essential to a successful program. We leave schools, and if there's no institutional knowledge, then the program dies. In Ben's school, high school kids train the middle school kids. An after school current events program supports MUN.
What will MUN do for students?
It provides them with the ability to utilize and improve the following skills:
- debate
- research and writing
- consensus building
- leadership
- critical and anlytical reasoning
What kind of students join MUN?
Students who are:
- self-motivated learners
- confident speakers or willing to try
- like to debate and have an interest in current events happening in the world
MUN allows students to:
- travel around a country or region to participate in MUN simulations,
- develop the skills to make them the future leaders of the world,
- have a program on their high school transcripts that is valued and respected by universities all over the world.
What is the advisor's role?
- Always encourage initiative and provide direction, but students must walk the path to achievement ontheir own.
- The key is to move your program forward every year with achievable goals communicated to the students, not just to maintain it.
John Joseph: The Brain Man
Educating the Whole Child
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
We need to take all the weighted elements and level the playing field for students. A study asked student to rate the things that affect their performance, and the top factor was sleep patterns. Children today get nine hours less per week than their parents got. So in one generation, we've wiped out one full night of sleep. So if a child is underachieving, it could be that they have lack of sleep.
It is the student himself that has the largest sphere of influence on their own learning, then the teacher, family, and peers. Intelligence is not fixed; we call this brain plasticity. Three things are important: motivation, confidence, and strategies for learning as well as time.
Narrowing the achievement gap can be done in two major ways: #1 giving kids feedback, #2 teaching kids learning strategies.
Kids fall into five categories:
Is there also a teacher plot? YES! Created by kids:
World 1 - My identity, hopes, dreams, soul. A healthy world one is essential, and the vast majority of kids have this. Those that don't see life as a treadmill, may be depressed, cannot bounce back. A healthy world one means you have a good life regardless of your circumstances. It is not always a factor of parenting. (The Heart)
World 2 - The concrete world, the forte of early world educators. Students who are in this world ask, "Why do I need to know this? When am I going to use this?" It includes everything that we can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. You get to meet people, go places and do things. World 2 includes everything you do with your hands and experience firsthand. (The Hands)
World 3 - The indirect experiences that are part of learning. It's the learning that requires generating mental images from words. Schools excel at world 3 learning. Those kids who don't do well in world 3 soon learn that if you create enough crises in the classroom, they'll give you some world 2 stuff to do. If you put in the world 2 without putting in the world 3 stuff, you leave out the intellectual attachment that comes with learning. (The Mind)
World 4 - The unknown world is the world of our hopes and dreams and possibilities. (The Unknown)
John sees parents who are living through their children, pushing them to do things that are not in their hearts. Passion for learning comes from doing what you love.
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
We need to take all the weighted elements and level the playing field for students. A study asked student to rate the things that affect their performance, and the top factor was sleep patterns. Children today get nine hours less per week than their parents got. So in one generation, we've wiped out one full night of sleep. So if a child is underachieving, it could be that they have lack of sleep.
It is the student himself that has the largest sphere of influence on their own learning, then the teacher, family, and peers. Intelligence is not fixed; we call this brain plasticity. Three things are important: motivation, confidence, and strategies for learning as well as time.
Narrowing the achievement gap can be done in two major ways: #1 giving kids feedback, #2 teaching kids learning strategies.
Kids fall into five categories:
- Anxious learner (high motivation, low confidence)
- High Flier learner (high motivation, high confidence)
- Conpetent learner (average motivation, average confidence)
- Struggling learner (low motivation, low confidence)
- Underachieving learner (low motivation, high confidence)
Is there also a teacher plot? YES! Created by kids:
- Anxious teacher (I love this job, but I have no clue what I'm doing!) high willingness, low knowingness
- High Flier teacher (This is a challenge; let's do it! but...We work as a team, and we do it my way.) high willingness, high knowingness
- Competent teacher (I leave my work at work at the end of the day. PD has to be practical.) average willingness, average knowingness
- Struggling teacher (School is a great place when there're no kids here.) low willingness, low knowingness
- Cynical teacher (They're frustrated high fliers. I've been teaching for 125 years, and it didn't work then, and it won't work now!) low willingness, high knowingness
World 1 - My identity, hopes, dreams, soul. A healthy world one is essential, and the vast majority of kids have this. Those that don't see life as a treadmill, may be depressed, cannot bounce back. A healthy world one means you have a good life regardless of your circumstances. It is not always a factor of parenting. (The Heart)
World 2 - The concrete world, the forte of early world educators. Students who are in this world ask, "Why do I need to know this? When am I going to use this?" It includes everything that we can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. You get to meet people, go places and do things. World 2 includes everything you do with your hands and experience firsthand. (The Hands)
World 3 - The indirect experiences that are part of learning. It's the learning that requires generating mental images from words. Schools excel at world 3 learning. Those kids who don't do well in world 3 soon learn that if you create enough crises in the classroom, they'll give you some world 2 stuff to do. If you put in the world 2 without putting in the world 3 stuff, you leave out the intellectual attachment that comes with learning. (The Mind)
World 4 - The unknown world is the world of our hopes and dreams and possibilities. (The Unknown)
John sees parents who are living through their children, pushing them to do things that are not in their hearts. Passion for learning comes from doing what you love.
The 21st Century Educator: the power of personal learning networks
by Kim Cofino
"Teachers who know how to use technology efffectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not." - SN Beach
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
presentation resources: http://21stcenturyeducator.wikispaces.com/
professional blog: http://www.kimcofino.com/blog
Video: Learning to Change, Changing to Learn
Idea: Parent-Teacher Coffee Morning once-a-month, show a video like the one above, then tell the parents that if they think it's important, talk to your child's educator.
The way we have school today will not last forever, and if you are a teacher, you need to be prepared. If you're not, you will fall behind. We need to learn how to teach online and create PLNs.
Your professional development is there 24 hours a day online. It's PD on fast forward. The best rises to the top, so I'm never concerned about missing something. It will come around again and again. It's responsive because you are filling your PLN with people who helpful to you. You are connected with all of these people, learning together.
The hard part is taking time to create the networks. Before Kim had her PLN, she felt alone and isolated as a teacher. Conferences allowed her to connect once or twice a year. She read Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts by Will Richardson. (Other book recommendations: Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, A Whole New Mind, The World is Flat, Wikinomics, The Long Tail).
She started with 6th grade and had them make their own blogs and figured she'd make one herself. Now after four years, she's found her voice and improved her writing. Then she discovered online conferences (K-12 Online Conference, entirely free!). She created an RSS feed, formed groups, began making personal connections, and finally, involving the students by investing in collaborations.
The next step was joining Nings. It's like walking into a neighborhood of likeminded people. And then...she discovered Twitter. Kim's recommendation, however, is to do it in this order:
Cool Tools:
wefollow.com
twittertim.es
search.creativecommons.org
"Teachers who know how to use technology efffectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not." - SN Beach
EARCOS Teachers Conference 2010, Manila, Philippines
presentation resources: http://21stcenturyeducator.wikispaces.com/
professional blog: http://www.kimcofino.com/blog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/langwitches/3458534773
Video: Learning to Change, Changing to Learn
Idea: Parent-Teacher Coffee Morning once-a-month, show a video like the one above, then tell the parents that if they think it's important, talk to your child's educator.
The way we have school today will not last forever, and if you are a teacher, you need to be prepared. If you're not, you will fall behind. We need to learn how to teach online and create PLNs.
Your professional development is there 24 hours a day online. It's PD on fast forward. The best rises to the top, so I'm never concerned about missing something. It will come around again and again. It's responsive because you are filling your PLN with people who helpful to you. You are connected with all of these people, learning together.
The hard part is taking time to create the networks. Before Kim had her PLN, she felt alone and isolated as a teacher. Conferences allowed her to connect once or twice a year. She read Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts by Will Richardson. (Other book recommendations: Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, A Whole New Mind, The World is Flat, Wikinomics, The Long Tail).
She started with 6th grade and had them make their own blogs and figured she'd make one herself. Now after four years, she's found her voice and improved her writing. Then she discovered online conferences (K-12 Online Conference, entirely free!). She created an RSS feed, formed groups, began making personal connections, and finally, involving the students by investing in collaborations.
The next step was joining Nings. It's like walking into a neighborhood of likeminded people. And then...she discovered Twitter. Kim's recommendation, however, is to do it in this order:
- RSS feeds are an absolute necessity. Kim uses Google Reader.
- Join a social network. Find a Ning.com site that interests you.
- Start your own blog. That's where you get that depth of thought and model what you want kids to be doing. Kim prefers Wordpress.com.
- Make personal connections. Find people you connect with and stay in touch.
- Attend online conferences.
- Make a twitter account. Don't forget to make a bio!
Cool Tools:
wefollow.com
twittertim.es
search.creativecommons.org
Blended Classrooms Are the Future
by Jeff Utecht
EARCOS Teachers Conference, 2010, Manila, Philippines
"It is predicted by 2019, 50% of high school courses will online. A study released in November found that blended classrooms (those utilizing both traditional and online learning formats) lead to great achievement...it is a whole new way of engaging learners in the learning process."
Florida Virtual High School is the largest virtual high school in the US with over 300,000 students! A portion of kids are high achievers who graduate early and move on the university, but a large portion are kids from low socioeconomic status who need to earn money for their families, so they work a full-time job and still go to high school - online. Some are using online classes for summer school to catch up or get ahead.
Studies showed that the more interactive, the more learning was going on in the online environment. 80% of incoming undergrads will take at least one online class before they graduate from university. Online enrollment in universities is skyrocketing! This is where universities are seeing the majority of growth.
We're talking about personalizing the educational landscape. Your kids do not come to school to learn. Why do they come to school? To see their friends and socialize. What is it that you are doing in your classroom right now that I don't have to take class time to do? It's that stuff that you can put online in order to maximize the face-to-face time.
Social bookmarking is a way that students can prepare for tomorrow's discussion. Their homework could be to use a site like diigo.com to bookmark their sites. Then in class you can discuss why people bookmarked what. We're really good at having kids put stuff on the Internet, but we're not really good about pulling that content back into the classroom. Kids are creating amazing blog posts, but are we having kids come back in and explain why the wrote what they wrote?
Build your lessons and allow your students to create something to show their learning. But at the end of the day, they have to answer the question, they have to reach the learning outcomes. In the beginning, some students will complain, "Please, please, just tell me what I need to know so I can memorize it and pass the test!" You'll have to retrain them. Can they not only create something, but can they analyze it? Do they know why they're doing it?
At Jeff's schools, students start the day with a blog post. One teacher will pick one kid and share it with the class. He'll ask the students to share their thoughts about it, too. (They use netvibes.com.)
OK, my computer's battery died there, so hopefully I'll find the notes later and post them here. Jeff Utecht is a virtual fount of technology information...no pun intended.
EARCOS Teachers Conference, 2010, Manila, Philippines
"It is predicted by 2019, 50% of high school courses will online. A study released in November found that blended classrooms (those utilizing both traditional and online learning formats) lead to great achievement...it is a whole new way of engaging learners in the learning process."
Florida Virtual High School is the largest virtual high school in the US with over 300,000 students! A portion of kids are high achievers who graduate early and move on the university, but a large portion are kids from low socioeconomic status who need to earn money for their families, so they work a full-time job and still go to high school - online. Some are using online classes for summer school to catch up or get ahead.
Studies showed that the more interactive, the more learning was going on in the online environment. 80% of incoming undergrads will take at least one online class before they graduate from university. Online enrollment in universities is skyrocketing! This is where universities are seeing the majority of growth.
We're talking about personalizing the educational landscape. Your kids do not come to school to learn. Why do they come to school? To see their friends and socialize. What is it that you are doing in your classroom right now that I don't have to take class time to do? It's that stuff that you can put online in order to maximize the face-to-face time.
Social bookmarking is a way that students can prepare for tomorrow's discussion. Their homework could be to use a site like diigo.com to bookmark their sites. Then in class you can discuss why people bookmarked what. We're really good at having kids put stuff on the Internet, but we're not really good about pulling that content back into the classroom. Kids are creating amazing blog posts, but are we having kids come back in and explain why the wrote what they wrote?
Build your lessons and allow your students to create something to show their learning. But at the end of the day, they have to answer the question, they have to reach the learning outcomes. In the beginning, some students will complain, "Please, please, just tell me what I need to know so I can memorize it and pass the test!" You'll have to retrain them. Can they not only create something, but can they analyze it? Do they know why they're doing it?
At Jeff's schools, students start the day with a blog post. One teacher will pick one kid and share it with the class. He'll ask the students to share their thoughts about it, too. (They use netvibes.com.)
OK, my computer's battery died there, so hopefully I'll find the notes later and post them here. Jeff Utecht is a virtual fount of technology information...no pun intended.
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